Admiral Hiraku continued. “Contact me when you’re back in charted space. The sooner the document is in Institute hands the quicker the GSS can put to rest all the troubles its notoriety has caused.” He paused. “Captain Sander?”
Nissa straightened. “Yes, sir?”
“Good work. I’ve already personally approved a promotion for you, and the commendation for your father.” With a nod, the Admiral ended the transmission.
She stared at the blank screen and waited to feel elation at getting what she’d always wanted. And waited some more. Nope, just as she suspected—nothing. She was happy about her father’s commendation, but the promotion…well, she felt oddly blank.
Strangely enough, she thought of Anderson Chan. He may have died on an unnamed planet in uncharted space, but she had no doubt he’d died doing exactly what he wanted to do. He’d grabbed life and adventure with both hands.
It was time for Nissa to do the same.
Beside her, Justyn was quiet, his body stiff. “I’d better go and…check on some things.” He strode off the bridge.
She stared after him.Stupid man. She slipped her hand in her pocket, felt the now-familiar shapes of the tiny airship and dog he’d given her. She moved to follow him.
“Nissa? There’s another trans for you.”
Air whistled through her teeth. “Rynan, you have to be kidding me.”
One of his slow smiles. “Nope.”
She dropped into a chair. “I’m a popular woman.”
“Appears so. Putting it through now.”
The screen flickered. “Dad?”
“Nissa. You look fine, considering some of the shenanigans I hear you’ve been up to. Are you okay?”
She smiled. “Dad, no one uses the word shenanigans anymore.”
“I do. Don’t avoid the question.”
“I’m fine.” She gave him an abbreviated version of the story.
After she’d finished, her father was quiet. “You did all this for me?”
Nissa swallowed. “Not all of it. Some of it I did for myself. Dad, I’m not going back to Patrol.”
She sensed rather than saw Dare and Rynan pause and look her way.
Her father frowned. “You’re going to take up with a smuggler?”
“Dad—”
“Don’t think I can’t read between the lines of that story you just told me. I’m your father, I can read everything on your face.”
“Then you know I’m serious. And that smuggler, he saved my life multiple times, and he loves me.” Goddess, she liked saying that aloud.
Her father sighed. “While the commodore in me is disappointed that you’d walk away from a promising career, the father in me is happy.”
Her jaw dropped. “What?”
“Nissa, I know so much of what you’ve done in your life was for me.”
“Dad—”
He held up a hand. “Let me finish. One day, when you’ve had your own children, you’ll understand. All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy, to go your own way and find a life that fulfills you. For a long time, I let myself think it was in the GSS. But a part of me always knew that while you liked it, you never loved it. So, if this smuggler loves you, that’s fine, but please, just promise me you won’tbecomea smuggler.”
